KABUL, Afghanistan — Four gunmen attacked the offices and guesthouse of San Rafael-based charity Roots of Peace, setting off a suicide car bomb and opening fire with assault rifles in a residential neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Friday. An Afghan child was killed in the crossfire as police battled the attackers.

Several foreign nationals working for Roots of Peace were in the building at the time of the attack but were able to flee, the group’s director Mohammed Uzman Sharifi told The Associated Press. Foreign children were seen being taken out of the building.

Deputy Interior Minister Mohammed Ayub Salangi said a three hour standoff ended with all four attackers being killed. One died when he exploded his vehicle at the entrance to the compound. The other three were killed by police. An Afghan child who happened to be nearby was killed during the battle, he said.

Roots of Peace charity specializes in agricultural development and is advising Afghanistan’s Agriculture Ministry. The group’s director did not identify the nationalities of the workers inside the building, but Salangi said at least three were believed to be Americans. A spokesman at the Roots of Peace office in San Rafael said no local members of the organization were killed or hurt in the attack.

“This tragic attack reminds us of the many challenges facing the innocent Afghan people, and our surge for firmly planting peace on the soils of Afghanistan will continue,” Heidi Kuhn, Roots of Peace CEO and founder, said in a press release.

Members of the Afghan National Police rapid reaction force, wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, cordoned off the area.

Witnesses say several houses on fire, possibly from the car bomb blast.

Mohammed Sadi, a resident in the area, said the force of the explosion rattled buildings several blocks away and broke windows in his house. “Then gunfire started and the police blocked all the roads,” he said.

The upscale neighborhood is home to some of the candidates in next month’s elections for president and provincial council. It didn’t appear that they were the targets, although the Taliban have stepped up their attacks ahead of the April 5 polling

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said insurgents attacked a “guest house of foreigners and a church of foreigners.” His claim could not be immediately confirmed.

“Attacks will continue and we will keep on killing foreigners,” he said in a statement to the media.

In the aftermath of the bombing, Roots of Peace remains committed to its mission in the strife-torn country, the organization reported. Its president, Gary Kuhn, said in a statement that the nonprofit “remains resolved to helping Afghan farmers nationwide to improve their incomes and create a stable economy.”

ROOTS OF PEACE: TURNING ‘MINES TO VINES’ FOR A DECADE:

The death of Princess Diana in 1997 inspired Heidi Kuhn to start San Rafael-based Roots of Peace in Diana’s memory, to ensure that her commitment to ridding the world of landmines would not die with her.

With the support of the California wine industry, as well as help from other private and public organizations, Roots of Peace launched its “Mines to Vines” campaign.

For the past decade, Roots of Peace has been helping a million Afghans to cultivate crops in all 34 provinces. A year ago, the organization celebrated a decade of agricultural marketing success at the World Trade Center in Dubai.

According to Roots of Peace, over the past 10 years its Mines to Vines program of turning minefields into vineyards has:

— Raised funds to remove more than 100,000 landmines and unexploded bombs.

— Planted more than 5 million trees.

— Trained more than 1 million Afghans to grow high-value crops.

— Doubled or tripled the income of Afghan farmers through trade and exports.

— Raised $500,000 through the Pennies for Peace program to build schools and soccer fields for Afghan children.

— Established more than 1,000 potato storage facilities.

— Helped with the export of more than 10,000 metric tons of fruit to regional markets.